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September 3, 2007

G138: Red Sox 13, Blue Jays 10

Not a pitchers' duel.

Blue Jays - 100 008 100 - 10 16 1Red Sox - 302 503 00x - 13 16 1

Through four innings, both Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia had scored three runs each. Toronto battled back, battering Dice and Javier Lopez in the sixth, but Boston immediately regained enough of its cushion for relievers Hideki Okajima, Mike Timlin and Jonathan Papelbon. (box)

Mike Lowell reached base in all five of his plate appearances, including a three-run dong in the first (which gave him 100 RBI) and singles in the sixth and seventh. Every hitter in the starting lineup had a hit -- and everyone but Coco Crisp scored a run.

7 GA and a Magic # of 18 (any combination of Boston wins and MFY losses totalling 18 = Red Sox winning the East title). ... Watch out for jumpers on the George Washington Bridge!

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This afternoon in the Bronx: Seattle 7, New York 1. Billy: 4-8-5-1-2, 62. Followed by Mussina: 3.2-7-2-0-1, 62. For the Mariners, Felix went 7-5-1-4-5, 114.

In 10 starts since late June, Litsch (whose Gameday photo frightens me) has a 2.48 ERA. Last Tursday, he held Oakland to two runs and four hits in six innings.

Matsuzaka allowed five runs in 6.1 innings aganst the Yankees in his last start. The Red Sox have lost each of his last four starts (5-6, 5-6, 1-2, 3-5). Matsuzaka has walked a lot of guys lately -- 25.1 IP, 20 H, 14 BB, 22 K, 4.97 ERA -- but only three of those 14 walks have scored. Opponents are hitting .222/.330/.367 against Dice.

The Chokers (6 GB and closer to third place than first) begin a series at home this afternoon against the Mariners, who have lost nine in a row after winning seven of eight. It's Felix Hernandez (4.08, 104 ERA+) / Fat Billy (4.15, 104 ERA+). New York is 2 GA of Seattle and 3 GA of Detroit in the wild card standings; Toronto lurks 5.5 GB. The Tigers are off today.

hey all. got home a bit ago from my food co-op's labor day picnic. I played softball for the first time in over a decade. I've got a gimpy left foot (it hurts to walk), but I got a single, double, and solid fly-out in 3 innings. It was a lot of fun and the skill-level was solidly low like my own.

Well then I guess I'm talking about teams like the Marlins, Royals, A's. I don't know, look at how much Barry Zito got payed. Only a small percentage of teams could aford to sign a big free agent like that.

I don't like the way they cut away from showing who the bat boy/girl gives the ball to. The one they just showed she passed by an excited young girl to give it to....? It's a perpetual peeve for me. I can stand not seeing Dice-K's back for another second or two.

I feel sorry for fans of losing teams like KC, whose owner has tons of money but doesn't spend any on the team. That would drive me nuts.

That's a situation where I've always wished Major League Baseball would have a larger hand in how teams spend their money (especially revenue). But RS is right. You don't know for sure how much each team makes, just like you don't know how much of their revenue goes toward their payroll, etc.

How they can make more money is to seal a nationwide fucking broadcast deal with the major networks like football. Like ESPN can do games here and there and CBS does National League and Fox does American League. Every Saturday there would be games and every fucking weekday there would be games to watch. I know all of them wouldn't be Sox games but fuck can I at least see some of the america's pastime games more than once every other week?

I don't know the details of it, but when I was out there recently, I heard some stories about the Seattle Supersonics (basketball). The new owner is planning on moving the team to Oklahoma City after making demands on stadium funding the city of Seattle will not go for. This after the previous owner had been trading off all the higher-cost, experienced players and making up a team of cheap youngsters.

I'm sure there's more to the story and I doubt my own accuracy, but there ya go.

But Charlie, the luxury tax doesn't have to go back into building the team. The owners of the Royals can take their money from Steinbrenner (or sometimes from John Henry, etc.) and buy a new house for themselves, or take a cruise.

from a Village Voice article about the new Yankees/Mets stadiums linked to on "Field of Schemes":On average, baseball teams have hiked tickets by 41 percent their first year in new homes. This is, of course, in addition to all the tax breaks and other incentives funded by the tax-payers (and fans).

It certainly feels like squandering a bases loaded, 0 out situation always comes back to bite you a little bit, even if it is a 9 run lead.

But I'm not worried one bit. It's a little disconcerting about Dice-K, but he's been like this the entire season. It seems obvious to me that he just doesn't use the fastball enough, but I'm not the pitching coach. Or 'Tek. Or Dice.

RS, did you hear Roger Clemens had an MRI on his elbow tonight? He's banged up. Doing a split today during the game didn't help matters much, either. Apparently his elbow is sore and that's why Mussina was brought in.

Hi all. Just got home from the Cape. Was listening on the radio. Had a ten minute spell with no radio reception and when the game returned, the score had gone from 10-1 to 10-9. Abd now Timlin is pitching?? Crazy game. At least they are still three runs up at this point.

Second best by what measure? Not games won. ERA? Not Ks, not runs given up. I assume you rate Beckett number 1. Wakefield has been pretty consistent and has more wins than Dice K, but we would never think of him as number 2.